Tayven Jackson has Indiana football offense ‘locked in on the details’ as Big Ten play resumes

There’s no sugarcoating it; the offense for the Indiana football program has not been good all season long. And, Saturday against Akron was the most sluggish it looked through four weeks.

But, it’s not getting any easier for Indiana as it resumes Big Ten play this weekend against Maryland. The Terrapins have one of the top defenses in all of college football, tied for second in turnover margin (2.0) and total turnovers forced (11), fifth in interceptions (7) all while ranking tied for 11th in scoring defense (12.25 pts per game).

It’s a critical week for Indiana to show progress following a disappointing performance in week four.

“We’ve got to be able to be — we just didn’t have our rhythm. We didn’t play. It just was obvious. We’ve got to, obviously, get that back,” IU head coach Tom Allen said on Monday. “And, to me, that’s on us as coaches. We’ve got to do a better job getting our guys ready to play and the play calling itself just in terms of matching the strengths of our guys.”

In what was just his third career start and second since being named the official starting quarterback, Tayven Jackson struggled. He struggled with signals, he struggled with some missed throws and also finishing drives.

He was just 11-of-26 for 190 yards with one touchdown and one interception.

“I think for me, I missed some signals. So I gotta be better at that,” Jackson said. “I got to be able to put this offense in a situation where we can execute, play fast and play explosive. I didn’t do a very good job of that (on Saturday).”

In his first poor performance, the following days were and are critical to get back on track. While a confident player for Indiana, he’s still very young. Despite that, his willingness to learn and ability to lead is already standing out.

“We just went in there and we talked as an offense, talked with the receivers and o-line and running backs. Felt like we didn’t do a very good job of being locked in on the details and executing the plays that were given. We missed a lot of reads. I missed a lot of reads. We missed a lot of blocks that, if we got one player blocked, it was gonna be a touchdown.

“So as a whole offense we know what we did wrong, and it’s just one of those games that it was just not our day, so we got to move on. We’ve got Maryland next week, and we’re gonna be explosive, we’re gonna attack the field.”

At this stage, every game is a learning lesson and an ability to keep developing.

While Saturday was a win, Tayven Jackson understands there is a lot that needs to happen in order to keep improving. And, he puts that performance solely on himself.

“If we don’t win, then I’m gonna take full responsibility for that because it’s on me. It’s on the quarterback to put the offense in situations to win the game,” Jackson said. “But I think on Saturday, I’m still going to take the fall for it because I didn’t do my best to execute the plays that were given and to put the guys in the right situation. So it’s always going to be on me because I’m the quarterback, but it is what it is.”

The message has remained consistent from the coaching staff — specifically Tom Allen and offensive coordinator Walt Bell.

“The message was, although we didn’t execute at a high level (on Saturday), and although we didn’t want to be in that situation that we were in, we still got to win,” Jackson added. “So we have to hold our heads high. It’s hard to win football games, so any opportunity that we get to win a football game, never take that for granted.”

So as Indiana football and Tayven Jackson head to Maryland for their first road test of 2023, it’s about execution, execution, execution.

“We saw the mistakes that we made and what we can get better at it in practice,” Jackson said. “Just keep harping on executing at high level.”

SEE ALSO: Early breakdown and initial thoughts on week five opponent for Indiana football — Maryland

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